


Second Star to the Right

by Fangirlshrewt97



Series: Nile Freeman's Guide to Down Time with Immortal Warriors [3]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Bonding, Constellations, Existential Angst, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Gen, Monstly Andy talking about how living for 6000 years is not that great, Peter Pan References, Stargazing, Stories hidden in the stars, Team as Family, andy and nile chat under an open sky, but that isn't always a bad or scary thing, idk guys, slight - Freeform, soft, there's nothing like looking up at the stars to make one feel small
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:49:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25692349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlshrewt97/pseuds/Fangirlshrewt97
Summary: She looked at the stars again. “I like coming to places like this because they make me feel not so old. They are pockets in time, inside of which time hasn’t really passed.”Nile twisted to lay on her back again, looking at the sky.“I feel old when I look at you all, and now without my immortality? I am not scared, but I feel like time is going too quickly. I used to be worshipped as a goddess, as someone not from this world. But I am of this world. So firmly of this world. And looking at these hills, these stars? It makes me feel small.” In a voice that was steadier than it was all evening, she added. “So little makes me feel small anymore. But these stars? They have been here since I was born. And they will still shine long after I am gone. To them, I am as transient as any other human that has walked the Earth. And that is a comfort very few places on the planet can offer me anymore.”Basically, Andy and Nile share a night under a sky filled with stars and the stories written in them.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman
Series: Nile Freeman's Guide to Down Time with Immortal Warriors [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851712
Comments: 30
Kudos: 252





	Second Star to the Right

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> I am once again blown away by the response to the other stories in this series, and really wanted to get this story out sooner but it just refused to be written. I finally wrangled it into behaving and managed to finish it.  
> I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please let me know with kudos/comments (which can include keyboard smashes, one word comments, or favorite lines!)  
> The story is not beta'd, so all errors are my own.  
> Also, I haven't actually been to the Scottish Highlands, so the descriptions are entirely based off of Google Image searches.
> 
> None of these characters belong to me, I am just borrowing them temporarily.
> 
> Enjoy,
> 
> Fangirlshrewt97

They had just finished a bloody mission that left even the immortals feeling worse for the wear. So Andy had told Copley to give them one week off, and hauled them all back into a van, telling them unceremoniously they were going camping. Joe and Nicky had merely slumped against each other, too sore and tired to argue. Nile had sighed, said a very firm “Fine, but we are getting actual food, I am not eating bunnies for dinner.” and fallen asleep in her seat.

Andy woke them up when they reached Lancaster, stopping to eat lunch.

When they got back into the car, Joe curled up against Nicky again, falling asleep quickly. He had been on watch when their mission had gone sideways, and been up for nearly 48 hours. Nicky pulled him more comfortably into his side. Nile curled up in the front seat, plugging her earphones in, and closing her eyes. They were back on the highway quickly.

“Where are we going Andy?” Nile ventured to ask as she saw the city melt into buildings, the skies the peculiar shade of gray she had only seen in the UK. 

“Scottish Highlands.”

Nile paused. Her geography was still not great, but wasn’t Scotland at the opposite end on the island? “From Surrey? Why are we driving so far?”

“Because I want to be away from people.”

That had shut Nile up. She gave Andy a through once over, noticing the tension in her shoulders, the tight grip she had on the steering wheel, her eyes darting to the side mirrors every few seconds. She looked haunted.

Nicky tightened his grip on Joe and tucked his face into familiar curls in the back seat. Nile settled deeper into the seat, letting Andy drive them.

Agreeing to Nile’s request, Andy had stopped at the last town before they drove into the Scottish Highlands, allowing her family to refuel and buy any food they may need. The two boys had disappeared into a store, saying they were going to buy actual cooking gear for camping.

“Andy, not that I don’t miss the days of spearing innocent forest creatures on sticks and eating, why should we when we can cook them using actual pots and a stove? Look at this, it is specifically made for when people sleep outdoors.” Joe had said, holding up a camping stove with a delighted grin.

Andy had grimaced but held her tongue, just grabbing chocolate and granola bars before returning to the car.

Nicky had nudged Joe to buy the rest of their supplies while Nile was tasked with buying the tents and sleeping bags.

The rest of the drive was peaceful. They had set out in the late morning from Copley’s place, and reached the Highlands by evening, the streetlights thinning out as the sunset painted the sky a beautiful shade of purple and orange. Nile had gasped when they entered the Highlands proper, pressing her face to the window, uncaring that she probably looked every bit the child the others saw her as.

She was all of 26 years old, a woman for others, but painfully young for them. So much curiosity, so much hope, and none of the jaded vision that they other three of them shared.

“Beautiful isn’t it Nile?” Nicky asked.

“I don’t think I have ever seen something so beautiful. Or green.” she said, wonder plain in her voice.

“Used to be, anywhere you walked, green was the easiest colour you could find.” Andy quipped, making Nile look at her. She noted that the tension in Andy’s shoulders from before was slowly decreasing with every mile they drove.

Andy drove them until they hadn’t seen a house for a couple miles, pulling the car out of the road into the Highlands proper, parking it a little distance from the river.

The family of four got out, breathing in air that was so fresh and cool, Nile felt overwhelmed. The only time Chicago air was so clear was in the dead of winter, but even then, the smell of industrialization was inescapable. Being in places like this, still largely untouched by modern civilization, it brought their pasts closer. Joe inhaled deeply before slamming the door, even that loud noise seeming quiet in this place.

“So Nile,” Joe started, making her look at him. “Do you know how to set up a tent?”

///

Nile woke with a start for no discernible reason. She squinted at the pitch black darkness that surrounds her, just flips onto her back and breathes until she feels her heart rate return to normal.

Dinner had been fun, Nicky teaching her the kinds of sticks to use to build a fire, and then showing her how to light it using flint. It had taken her way too many tries, but at least the others had been kind enough to keep their laughter to themselves. Setting up the tents had also been an adventure, but at least that one she had only messed up once before hammering the stakes deeper into the ground.

She took stock of her surroundings, already knowing she was not going to be returning to sleep soon. The chill in the air seems to have soaked into her skin as she slept, her thin nightshirt not enough to warm her. Turning her head, she saw Andy’s sleeping bag exactly as she had laid it out. Their leader had not come to sleep at all.

Reaching her hand out, she felt around for a bit before she stumbled upon the small flashlight she had remembered to buy. Turning it on now, she had to squint at the sudden influx of light in the dark tent. She sat up on her elbows, and saw that there was a small opening at the edge where it was not fully closed.

She sighed. Sitting up properly, she reached for her bag, using the flashlight to grab her hoodie, pulling it over her head. She debated quietly between shoes or going barefoot before shrugging. The possibility of being attacked here without the others knowing was nigh impossible. Barefoot it was. She also grabbed her phone, checking the time out of habit, and seeing it was 3:30 in the morning.

Keeping her flashlight in hand, she unzipped the tent and stepped out. The grass beneath her feet was not yet wet. Moving quietly, not wanting to startle her other two companions, Nile left their small campsite, their fire pit made of ashes and a few red embers.

She turned off her flashlight when she realized it was actually quiet bright, and turned her head to the sky, only to feel as though she had exhaled all at once. There in the sky, an almost full moon shone brightly, so clear Nile could make out a few of it’s craters eve without binoculars. But besides the moon. Besides the moon was a sky so chock full of stars, Nile nearly fell over. As far as she could see, the navy blue ceiling was painted with a million, no, a billion pin pricks of lights, all crowding one another she could barely pick them apart.

Taking a deep breath, she tore her gaze from the sky, setting her gaze to the ground once again so she could find Andy.

The grass was rustling gently, and the hills rose like mountains in the moonlight. Nile walked away from the camp and the car, following the river in the direction where the grass was flatter, as though it had been tread on. After five minutes, she found her target.

Andy was lying on her back on her blanket, one arm tucked her head as the other lay on her stomach. One of her legs was bent at the knee while the other one was flat, and Nile noticed the elder woman was barefoot, shoes set to the sides. When she was less than 10 meters away from her, Andy turned her head to look at her.

“Couldn’t sleep kid?”

Nile shook her head. “Couldn’t stay asleep.”

“Hmm.” Andy hummed before turned back.

Nile took that as a cue and sat next to Andy’s head, closing her eyes. The wind was chilly but she was Chicago born and bred, if the wind didn’t slice through your skin, you just walked on.

“This place looks like its out of a fairy tale or something.”

Andy huffed next to her.

“No seriously. When my mom or dad read fairy tales to me, and they mentioned characters walking for days through valleys, I always imagined places like this.”

When Nile looked at Andy, she saw the woman had her eyes open, a small smile in place. She suddenly felt her breath catch when she realized she couldn’t recall if she had ever seen her look so relaxed before.

“What about you. Couldn’t sleep?” Nile asked after a few minutes.

Andy shook her head once. “Didn’t want to.”

“Why not?”

Andy took a deep breath, letting her eyes fall closed and her bent leg to drop. When she opened them, Nile could see her eyes were slightly glazed, and bit her tongue for making Andy upset again. She had been with her new family for about a year now, and while she liked to think she had gotten a hand of things, these people had had nearly 900 years together. There was so much she did not know about them. Andy most of all.

“I’m sorry Andy.”

“No. I am not. I didn’t want to sleep because we don’t come to places like this often.”

“Places…like this? Like places away from people.”

Andy huffed again, her eyes looking less glazed and more fond. “Open fields, green things that stretch as far as the eye can see.”

“Oh.”

“My home, the place I come from, it was similar to this. Open fields that seemed to reach the horizon. Where you could rise a horse all day and all day, and still not be any closer to the sun. Cities, hell, the world nowadays. It is large and filled with people, gray and metallic. You can’t hear the sound of grass rustling, or run in a straight line for as long as you want.” She paused. “You also definitely don’t get a night sky like this anymore.”

Nile exhaled with an agreeing huff.

“I don’t think I have ever seen such a clear sky, not even in Afghanistan.”

“Lie back, it’ll be easier to see without giving you a neck ache.”

Nile smirked before moving forward and lying back, landing on her back with her knees bent and hands folded over her stomach.

The dazzling array was just as stunning, and Nile thought it was a vision she wouldn’t forget for a long time.

She squinted for a minute before smiling as she identified a familiar set of three stars in the sky. “Andy look, Orion’s belt!”

Andy glanced at her before following her hand. “Hmm. Three stars in a straight line.”

“Yeah, it was the first one my dad taught me.” Nile said, smile fading to the familiar mixture of wonder and sadness that was becoming a friend to her in her immortality.

“Your dad taught you constellations?”

Nile nodded her head as best she could. “Me and my brother both. He bought this telescope that he set out in our yard. Mom was so mad at him cause it was so expensive but he just waved her off, telling her it was well worth the prize to show the universe to his kids. Said he was going to help us find Neverland.”

“Neverland?” Andy asked.

“It’s, yeah,” Nile laughed. “Peter Pan. Um, the book, and then the movie, it was my favorite for a long time. The thought of this magical being coming to call me for an adventure in a land far far away? Plus, the directions to Neverland were ‘Second star to the right, and straight on till the morning’. I remember, the first time we watched the movie, I stayed up that night trying to find which star was supposed to be the second star.”

“I’ve not read that book.”

“I’m not sure how much you’d like it. But it is about a boy who has all these other younger boys he takes care of while fighting off the evil Captain Hook, and he has a fairy friend called Tinkerbell.”

“How…charming.”

Nile snorted. “It’s cheesy as hell. And dark too, cause when you read it after you grow up, it kind of implies that Peter doesn’t let the boys go even when they want to leave, forcing them to be young boys forever. Or something like that, it has been forever since I read it.”

“Hmm.” Andy said. “Second star to the right of what?”

“I have no clue!” Nile said, genuine frustration coloring her voice, and Andy can almost imagine an even younger Nile pouting and stomping her foot with indignation. It makes her laugh.

“Neverland sounds magical.”

“I used to dream for a long time for a way to escape there. Especially after my dad passed. The world doesn’t touch Neverland, and if I stayed the same age as when we first received the news he was missing in action, then maybe he could stay missing forever. Rather than dead.”

A stray tear surprised her by making its way down her cheek. Reaching up, she quickly wiped it away.

Andy was quiet, letting Nile compose herself. “He sounds like a good father.”

Nile replied through a lump in her throat. “The best.”

Andy looked back at the sky. “The first thing I remember my father teaching me was to put a saddle on a horse.”

The unexpectedness and absurdity of the statement startled a laugh out of Nile. She turns to her side, tucking her knees in and using her arm as a pillow as she faced Andy. “What?”

Andy smirked. “My people. We were nomads. Our lands stretched over most of today’s Western Asia. We used to travel far and wide. We didn’t have a settlement, a permanent place to call home. Our home was our tribe, those we travelled with.”

Nile felt like she could barely breathe, so scared of breaking this spell. “That is lovely.”

Andy’s smile dimmed. “Yeah. Until all your people die, and you have to either leave them or risk putting them in even more danger.”

“Andy…”

“Nile, I was revered as a goddess by my people. And by some of the others I crossed during my earliest travels. It,” Andy swallowed, “When you are revered, you are held at a distance, you can be welcomed by people, but you will never be one of them.”

Nile stayed silent. What could you say to that?

“When I started dreaming of Quynh, I cried in relief. Finding her, she saved me in so many ways. She brought me back to the ground, gave me someone who would always consider me one of her people.” Andy trailed off, her eyes looking suspiciously glazed while her voice sounded close to tears. “We were just the two of us for so long, and then we had Lykon, then we didn’t, then we got Joe and Nicky. But then I lost her.”

“How did you stay sane Andy?” Nile asks before she can bite back the question.

Andy gave a wet chuckle as a single tear made it’s way down her cheek. She did not bother to wipe it away. “Some days I wonder if I did.” 

The two stayed quiet them, succumbing to unspoken grief. But Nile felt like she was going to suffocate, and she’d be damned if she let Andy do the same. “Did your dad teach you constellations too?”

Andy blinked before twisting her head.

Nile stared straight back at her.

Andy smiled a small smile. It was enough of a victory for Nile.

“He taught me constellations you wouldn’t know.”

“I don’t know that many constellations to be honest.”

Andy let out an actual laugh. “No Nile. He taught me constellations that have been lost to time.

She let out a big exhale, settling back to her position. “In those years when I travelled alone, I started feeling like nothing in this world was significant. Quynh and I travelled to Egypt, we saw Giza before the pyramids were built.”

And shit, statements like that still blew Nile’s mind, because what?

“What?”

Andy chuckled. “Yeah, I remember going while they were clearing out the place for them. Without Quynh, you are all so young to me. Even Nicky and Joe. I have seen the great wonders of the world be built, be new and enchanting, and also seen them grow old and worn. When you have lived a life like mine, things stop feeling significant in some ways.”

Nile didn’t voice how terrifying she found that idea.

“Andy, just because you have seen all the wonders doesn’t mean new wonders cannot still be appreciated.”

“That’s not what I mean Nile.” She held up a hand, and Nile stared at it before tentatively placing her hand in it. Andy squeezed it briefly.

“When you live as long as we do, we see the world change in a way that is different than the change observed over a single lifetime. I have gone from a world where the only way to get around were horses and believing the world was flat to learning to fly and seeing a man walk on the moon.”

“Oh, that’s a story I want to hear.” Nile said, eyes sparkling.

Andy laughed again. “Perhaps another day. Joe tells it best anyways. But what I am trying to say is that the world changes so quickly, that the thing you take for fact now may soon reveal themselves to be falsehoods and myths, and people younger to you,” and here Andy squeezed her hand again, “will take the piss at you for not knowing something that is obvious to them.”

“Booker?”

“Booker.”

She looked at the stars again. “I like coming to places like this because they make me feel not so old. They are pockets in time, inside of which time hasn’t really passed.”

Nile twisted to lay on her back again, looking at the sky.

“I feel old when I look at you all, and now without my immortality? I am not scared, but I feel like time is going too quickly. I used to be worshipped as a goddess, as someone not from this world. But I am of this world. So firmly of this world. And looking at these hills, these stars? It makes me feel small.” In a voice that was steadier than it was all evening, she added. “So little makes me feel small anymore. But these stars? They have been here since I was born. And they will still shine long after I am gone. To them, I am as transient as any other human that has walked the Earth. And that is a comfort very few places on the planet can offer me anymore.”

“Tell me a story.”

Andy blinked at her. Nile gave her an encouraging smile.

“A…story?” Andy asked, as though the word was new to her.

“Of one of the constellations your dad taught you. So there is one other person who will know about them.”

Andy’s breath hitched. Nile was so young, even by normal human lifespans. Too young to have already died. But so kind, so hopeful, Andy sometimes froze with how much life there was in Nile. But she had meant every word that she had said in Merrick’s penthouse, because Nile did remind her of her time being invincible. But she also reminded her of how precious life is.

“A trade. I tell you the constellations my father taught me, if you tell me yours?”

Nile laughed. “Sure, but I only know the big ones.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Nile shook her head even as she used the hand still holding Andy’s for a sideway handshake. “Deal.”

She looked at the sky, trying to imagine the sky to be about 70% less crowded. The longer she stared, the more she was able to distinguish. “Ok well, since we found Orion’s belt, we can also find the rest of Orion. And then close to Orion, we can see the Big Dipper, which means, uhhh,” Nile said as she waved her hand before finding her target. “There. That’s the Small Dipper. Um, what else, oh there, on top of Orion, that’s Gemini, and nearby Taurus, oh wow, you know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen all the stars for it at once? One or two would always be too faded in Chicago.”

“You can find all the Zodiac constellations?” Andy asked.

“I know what they look like, but I’ve never seen them all in the sky.”

Andy hummed. “Those 12 constellations. That pattern is seen everywhere in the world, so almost every culture that uses the stars and draws in them finds them.” she explained. “All the Zodiac signs fall in a line that follows the Sun’s path. So if you can find Gemini and Taurus, then you can find the others. Look, follow my finger ok?”

Nile nodded.

“You see that star?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the first star of Cancer. So, those five stars make up Cancer. Then keep following them that way, you see those two stars, they are part of the head of the lion.”

“Leo.”

“Correct, so you will see one star to that side, and then follow it down, that’s the neck, and then these six stars,” She drew a imaginary line between then several times, “Those six make up the body.”

Andy showed her the rest of the constellations, and then to test her, made Nile draw them all out for her.

“Satisfied?” Nile asked as she finished drawing Pisces.

“What others do you know?”

“Um, the Northern cross.” Nile said, searching the sky. Andy grabbed her hand and pointed it towards one section of the sky, letting Nile focus and “Found it!”

“Where is the North star?”

“The last star of the Small Dipper.”

“Very good.”

Both women lay back down, enjoying the wind rustling gently through the trees as they watched the heavens above. Nile felt the warmth from before grow into a comfortable hearth.

“Thank you for the Astronomy lesson.”

“You’re welcome. There may come a time when your fancy GPS, or even a reliable compass won’t work, but you can always trust the stars to guide you in the right direction.”

Nile turned to look at Andy. “Your turn to show me your constellations. We made a deal.”

Taking a deep breath, Andy let her eyes scan the stars above before finding a forgotten constellation. “Do you see those two stars?” Andy pointed.

Nile followed her gaze.

Nile let Andy show her constellations from her childhood, feeling both a bitter pang of nostalgia for her brother and her dad. But also a curl of warmth in this foreign sea of grass that warmed her better than the fire pit had.

Even if most of the stars they perceived had actually died a long long time ago, they still shone bright, and Nile would make sure these stories Andy was telling her would live on. Just as much as Andy’s own.

She may have stopped searching for Neverland, but she thinks she might have found it anyways. After all, what did Peter Pan and his lost boys have on a 6000-year-old badass woman and two star-crossed Crusaders in love?

Nile settled on the grass, letting Andy make sense of the twinkling tapestry above them.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to come chat, come find me at fangirlshrewt97.tumblr.com  
> I am thinking of doing one story with each of the guard (or different pairs of them) bonding with Nile, so I would love to get suggestions for what they could bond over!


End file.
